10061: Self-Perpetuating Bullshit.

Adweek interviewed Jeff Goodby, and the conversation covered industry diversity. Here’s an excerpt:

Jeff Goodby is seeking African-American applicants for the second annual Goodby Silverstein & Partners Digital Fellowship, which comes with a scholarship subsidy to Stockholm’s Hyper Island educational institute. While on a San Francisco Bay ferry, the GS&P co-founder spoke to Adweek about why the industry needs more minorities, what happened behind the scenes during some difficult months at GS&P and how he has handled online criticism.

Adweek: Why has advertising always been largely a white industry? 
There’s a lot of African-American artists who don’t think of advertising as something appropriate for them. Maybe it’s self-perpetuating. When you look at commercials and see a white world, you think, “That’s not my world.” But the way you can influence popular culture through advertising is so powerful that it’s a shame we don’t have a more diverse workforce.

Gee, what a shame. It’s also shameful that no one sees the need to address the perpetrators of the self-perpetuating White world. So much easier to send Black candidates to Sweden.